Kentucky Bourbon Trail
by Lewis
Award Level: Webby People's Voice Winner
Category Name: Travel & Lifestyle
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“We set out to create more than a website; we built a digital experience that could grow with the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The result is a platform that scales storytelling as much as technology, honoring the Trail’s heritage while embracing innovation to create more meaningful, connected experiences for visitors and greater visibility, efficiency, and growth opportunities for our client and member distilleries.”
—Katie Peninger, VP of Account Service & Business Growth, Lewis
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The site is configured with the application layer on Next.js and content management capabilities powered by WordPress®, offering high scalability and a file structure that is easily understood by both humans and AI to future-proof the digital face of Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
The challenge
Develop a digital experience that reflects the new, modernized Kentucky Bourbon Trail® brand while also serving as an indispensable planning tool for a world-class tourism program that has seen exponential growth in the last 25+ years.
Keep pace with rapid tourism growth through effective digital infrastructure that fixes the issues associated with the legacy website, namely, outdated information, inefficiencies, and logistical challenges for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and its partners.
Better represent the elevated experiences offered by member distilleries, educate visitors to help them plan a Bourbon Trail™ trip, and provide an improved content management system to make accommodating future growth less of a hassle.
The solution
The new solution, built on WP Engine, improves the ease of expansion and the end-user experience for Kentucky Bourbon Trail and its visitors.
The team at Lewis built a site that was designed for future growth using modular content and flexible architecture, knowing the site needed to grow alongside the Kentucky Bourbon Trail itself. They also organized the Bourbon Trail™ into regions to help visitors see what’s possible and what’s practical when planning a trip.
This approach created time efficiencies when onboarding new members and partners, better visibility for Kentucky Bourbon Trail members, and a better experience for bourbon enthusiasts visiting the site as they customized their trips to their unique tastes and desires.
The results
Following the launch of the new Kentucky Bourbon Trail website, traffic increased by 29% year over year, with new visitors up 29% and pageviews up 27%.
The redesigned experience earned a Webby People’s Voice Award and expanded the Trail’s reach beyond its neighboring states, with markets like Florida and California rising among the top sources of traffic.
These results prove that the new platform is attracting and inspiring a broader audience to explore Kentucky and its many bourbon distilleries.
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